Plastics pollution requires laws similar to those that curb smoking

We're ingesting toxic plastics to the point where it's becoming a public health concern.

- By Leonie Joubert

Imagine we're having this conversation in the smokers' lounge. Yes, with that tarry fog catching in your throat, and your delicate pink lung tissue soaking it all up. Imagine our kids are in here with us.

While we're here, let's consider this one simple question: what is a lethal dose of plastic poisoning?

Today, we know something about passive smoking. That's why we don't light up in the car with the kids. Because of legislation from the Department of Health, which relied on evidence-based science relating to the health impacts of passive smoking, this form of pollution is kept to discrete places. You and I can decide whether we want to go into the smokers' corner or not.

But when it comes to inhaling plastics pollution, we can't see it, we can't taste it, we can't smell it. Many of us don't even know it's there. But it is. The evidence is telling us that airborne microplastics are pretty much everywhere: we're turning the entire planet into a smokers' lounge. It's one that none of us can leave not even our kids.

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